We have the capacity to report eye-witness accounts in real time. There is information overload. We think we can tap into the crowd to get a better understanding of the probability of something being true.

My take: I have two angles of feedback on this: the technology and the social impact. Let me start with the simple observation, this is cool technology. This effort combines some very interesting things: the collection of diverse data feeds, social technologies for validating information, and rich Internet technology to support visualization, analysis, and drill-down.

Now on to the social benefits. News from around the world is tainted by controlling governments, partisan journalists, and a lack of credible data. So people (and governments) form their opinions based on less-than-reliable anecdotes. In this environment of unreliable information, genocides like Darfur, Rwanda, and the Holocaust are allowed to continue. If people around the world have accurate information about these situations, their collective outrage will hopefully serve as an enormous deterrent in the future.

There are also some other potential benefits to society. We’ve heard a lot about the outbreak of diseases like bird flu and SARS around the world. Real-time information about patients and symptoms would help to alert medical experts about the the spread and severity of those diseases.

The bottom line: I’m rooting for the Ushadidi project to succeed.

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I am a customer experience transformist, helping large organizations improve business results by changing how they deal with customers. As part of this focus, I examine strategy, culture, interaction design, customer service, branding and leadership practices. I am also a fanatical student of business, so this blog provides an outlet for sharing insights from my ongoing educational journey.
Simply put, I am passionate about spotting emerging best practices and helping companies master them. And, as many people know, I love to speak about these topics in almost any forum.
My “title” is Managing Partner of the Temkin Group, a customer experience research and consulting firm that helps organizations become more customer-centric. Our goal is simple: accelerate the path to delighting customers.
I am also the co-founder and Emeritus Chair of the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA.org), a non-profit organization dedicated to the success of CX professionals.

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3 thoughts on “Off Topic: Ushadidi May Improve The World”

Bruce, was there any discussion of how the platform would potentially protect the identities of individuals who were providing updates? To your “social impact” point, I would just worry about an oppressive regime triangulating the location of some of the users.

Sam: That’s a great question. I haven’t seen anything specifically about that, but I would hope (and expect) that Ushadidi has (or is developing) security measures to protect the identity (and exact location) of “informants.” It would be a complete nightmare if this information could somehow be repurposed by oppressive regimes.

I was recently listening to an episode of NPR’s “On Point” with Tom Ashbrook about the future of News, and the potential demise of the Daily Newspaper. It occurred to me that as investigative journalists and their readers search for alternative outlets and business models online, truth verification in an online world becomes increasingly important. Technology like this seems well suited to meet some of that demand.